Many administrations evolve in a kind of tug of war between the #activists who demand attention to their pet causes and the political #realists who grab the candidate’s arm and tap the sign that reads, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

And then, every few years, the majority steps back in,
determines whether politicians have taken care of prices, crime and peace, and then ruthlessly punishes failure
— regardless of whether the activists got what they wanted, and even if they might agree with the activists’ concerns.

⭐️With Trump, the dynamic is different.
He’s so consumed with his grievances and his base’s grievances that rather than there being a tug of war between activists and pragmatists for the politician’s attention,
⚠️the activists and the politician are both aligned against the pragmatists.

That was the clear direction of Trump’s first term.
At first he surrounded himself with serious people.
Think of the contrast, for example, between Jim #Mattis as secretary of defense and Pete #Hegseth,
or between Alex #Azar, the secretary of health and human services for most of Trump’s first term, and an anti-vax conspiracy theorist like Robert F. #Kennedy Jr.

But the serious people told him no. They tried to block his worst instincts.
So they were purged.

💥Throughout the campaign, Trump ran with two messages.
🔸On the airwaves, he convinced millions of Americans that they were electing the Trump of January 2019, when inflation was low, and the border was under reasonable control.
🔸At his rallies, he told MAGA that it was electing the Trump of January 2021, the man unleashed from establishment control and hellbent on burning it all down.

➡️But here is his fundamental problem:
The desires of his heart and the grievances of his base are ultimately incompatible with the demands of the majority,
🔥and the more he pursues his own priorities, the more he’ll revive his opposition.

❇️He’ll end his political career as an unpopular politician who ushered in a Democratic majority yet again.
The reason goes deeper than #ideology (many of his nominees are extremists)
or #scandal (Kennedy, Hegseth, and Matt Gaetz, each have their own histories of alleged sexual misconduct, for example).

Ultimately, it goes to #competence:
Can you do the job we ultimately hired you to do❓

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/17/opinion/trump-kennedy-gaetz-hegseth.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Forget firing,
Donald Trump just pitched having special counsel Jack Smith #deported.

During a rambling radio interview on 77WABC’s Cats & Cosby Thursday,
Trump threw out Smith’s name when asked about his plans for immigration. 

“Domestically, what could America look like if it continues to have this open border policy that we have seen?” asked host Rita Cosby.
“We can’t have it, it’s, it’s not sustainable, it has to be shut immediately and you have to let people in, but they have to come in legally and you have to get the killers, the murderers, and the mentally deranged, you have to get them out.
And we should throw Jack Smith out with them,” Trump said. 
“The #mentally #deranged people, Jack Smith should be considered mentally deranged and he should be thrown out of the country,” Trump continued. 

Trump seemed to pluck Smith’s name out of thin air, as the special counsel had not yet come up in the interview.
Smith has overseen two investigations into Trump,
one regarding his alleged efforts to overturn the election results in 2020,
and another into his alleged mishandling of classified documents.  

This isn’t the first time Trump has threatened to deport those in the country legally.
The former president has repeatedly made threats to deport immigrants who have entered the country under temporary protected status and humanitarian parole.

Shortly before claiming that he would deport one of his political enemies, who is attempting to hold him accountable for his alleged crimes, Trump tried desperately to defend himself from claims that he was a fascist. 

The former president went on a tirade against his former chief of staff, retired U.S. general #John #Kelly, who said that Trump fell into the “general definition of fascist.”
Trump claimed Kelly was simply angry he’d been fired.

Trump went on a wild rant calling Kelly a “stupid person,”
“a bully who made up stories,”
and “a man of rather low intelligence, who was a tough guy who became a marshmallow.”
He swerved into complaints about former Secretaries of Defense #Mark #Esper and #James #Mattis, and former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff #Mark #Milley. 

This is Trump’s second threat against Smith in as many days.
Trump vowedThursday to “fire” Smith on his first day in office, in hopes of washing his hands of the two federal cases against him.

https://newrepublic.com/post/187579/donald-trump-jack-smith-deport

Via #Acyn @ 7:23pm EDT on Oct 19, 2024

#Trump: I will invoke the #AlienEnemiesAct of 1798. Can you believe that? We couldn't have an act like that now. Because now everything's #woke. You know, we have woke Generals like #Milley and #Mattis. They don’t do things like this

Where are you #Mattis, #Kelly, #Romney, et al? "IT’S NOT TOO LATE FOR THESE PEOPLE to heed their better angels. Donald Trump must be stopped. It is incumbent upon everyone who sees this clearly—and who played a part in getting us here—to speak out and deal with the personal ramifications. Frankly, it’s the least we should expect of them."

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/republicans-who-served-with-trump-and-saw-the-crazy-should-endorse-kamala-harris

#Harris2024

 #BoyScoutsOfAmerica

🇺🇸 General James N. #Mattis (Retd) provides his opinion and pointers on #Leadership, #russia / #Ukraine and #Scouting, in this fascinating and rapid-paced 25 minute interview full of content, from May 2022

📝 This 25 min interview is also packed with valuable insights into today's situation in #Ukraine

** Not To Be Missed **

https://youtu.be/UFLX1LdhRN4?feature=share #Military #History #News